In the last of our series of blogs looking at key private equity themes for 2017, Dan Ginsberg, Bill Shine and Mark McTigue discuss how a relatively large inventory of portfolio companies readying for exit, coupled with high valuations has led many PE firms to re-evaluate the way due diligence is performed.

70-80% of all M&As fail to achieve their financial goals

As stock prices and corporate cash levels continue to be close to record highs, and interest rates stay near historic lows, M&A activity over the coming year is set to remain high.

For CEOs and private equity executives with ambitious growth targets, acquiring another company can be a very attractive proposition. Yet survey after survey reports that as many as half of all mergers and acquisitions concluded don’t achieve their financial goals, and between 70-80% don’t create significant value. In the face of these disappointing statistics it’s an imperative for executives to change the way they approach transactions.